The world’s largest shopping mall (based on total area) is the Dubai Mall at the base of the Burj Dubai, er, Burj Khalifa. Inside the mall is the Dubai Aquarium and Discovery Centre, which holds 10 million liters (2.6 million gallons) of water and has the Guinness World Record world’s “Largest Acrylic Panel”.
And it’s leaking.
So says the Gulf News: “Dubai Mall aquarium cracked and leaking.”
Uh-oh.
Remember when all they had to worry about was shark fights?
Article about Dubai and it’s porous border with cross-gulf neighbor Iran: “Dubai Helps Iran Evade Sanctions as Smugglers Ignore U.S. Laws.”
Money quote from a member of Dubai’s Iranian Business Council (IBC):
“You can get anything you want, and you can ship anything you want to Iran,” says Morteza Masoumzadeh, an IBC director and owner of a shipping company that transports goods between Iran and Dubai. “Every company in Iran is either here or has representatives here.”
The assassination of Mahmoud al Madbouh is still captivating me. Doesn’t it seem like wacky Cold War shit – but twenty-five years too late? At the very least it feels like Daniel Craig James Bond. Spys sans tuxedos.
Perhaps I’m just into it because it’s Dubai, where I always felt rather surveilled to begin with.
Anyway, here’s a The Wall Street Journal article written by a senior military and intelligence analyst for an Israeli newspaper: “Israel and the Dubai Murder Mystery” (the site is gated, so I made a page for it on my site).
More info about the assassination of Mahmoud al Madbouh from last month (see Dubai Assassination).
Apparently they’ve found info about some of the assassins: “Dubai killers stole identities of UK citizens“.
The Dubai papers played up the fact that it took either 11 or 17 people to kill him, but I think regardless of the size of the team, this is the key quote:
“His murder in his hotel room near Dubai’s international airport took 10 minutes and early forensic tests suggest he was suffocated. The assassins left on flights to Europe and Asia before the body was discovered on 20 January.”
He was dead before the Police even knew they’d been to and left the country.
Jeesh!
Remember last year when Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer wasn’t allowed into the UAE to play in the Dubai Tennis Championships because, well, she was Israeli (see Shahar Peer and Dubai)?
Well they let her in this year, and she’s already winning: “Israel’s Peer Makes Winning Start to Dubai Event.”
Recently we’ve talked about LEGOLAND owner Merlin Entertainments Group and how thy’re partially owned by Dubai International Capital (see Cypress Gardens and LEGO, Merlin, and Dubai).
Well now it turns out that Dubai actually owns a little less of them than we thought: “Dubai Firm Sold Part Of Merlin Stake“.
Josh finally lives in Maine again
after four years at Boston University, a stint in Southern California with
Walt Disney Feature Animation,
and two years in Dubai, UAE,
where he created and wrote
Newlywed in Dubai.
